September 19, 1995, 34 year-old Barack Obama announced his candidacy for Illinois’s State Senate. One of his opponents was first-time candidate Gha-is Askia.
During his campaign, Abdul-Jalil consulted Askia and his client, M. C. Hammer supported a community event Askia sponsored while doing a series of TV/radio/media appearances in Chicago for his album promotion tour.
Obama had been a grassroots organizer in this gritty neighborhood, registering thousands to vote before going off to Harvard Law School. He came back to Chicago, to work as a lawyer. And saw a chance to run for state Senate. But in his first race for office he made sure Democratic voters had just one choice. Him.
ALL Obama’s opponents were kicked off that ballot before a single vote was cast. How? Obama sent a team of lawyers and volunteers to the Chicago Board of Elections, and challenged the petitions of his opponents. You needed 757 signatures of registered voters to become a candidate. Askia gathered 1,999. But when the Obama team was through challenging his signatures, addresses and voter registrations, Askia came up 69 signatures short. THE REST, AS THEY SAY, IS HISTORY!!
Abdul-Jalil and Askia partnered to bring Muhammad Ali and his wife Lonnie to San Francisco on November 5, 1995 for “The Sports Image Awards”, an event Abdul-Jalil Sponsored, to Honor Ali with the “Lifetime Achievement Award”.
The Sports Image Awards- A Night to Remember!, sought to single out and honor those in sports who have dedicated effort, time and money to better their community, the nation, and the World. Those honored, we feel, are a part of a long line of athletes that back to the great Paul Robeson, who matched dignity with dollars. Those who use sports for it’s highest and most noble purpose, the uplifting of the Human Family.
Also being honored were Venus Williams, Carl Lewis, Steve Young, Al Attles, Dave Stewart, Peter Westbrook. Hammer was the Featured Entertainer. The program included Founder- Martin Wyatt, Master of Ceremonies- Mark Curry, Music Director- Narada Michael Walden, Recording Artist- Color Me Badd, Touch of Class Choir, Clarence Clemmons, Nikita Germaine. Lisa DeBartolo- 49er Foundation and Dennis Banks presented and received Special Presentations.
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- Lead vocals by Marvin Gaye
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- Background vocals by Eric Dolen, Charles Burns, Dwight Owens, Michael Torrance & Wally Cox
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- Instrumentation:
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- Ed Green: drums
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- James Jamerson: bass
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- David T. Walker: guitar
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- Ray Parker: guitar
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- Joe Sample: keyboard
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- John Arnold: percussion
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- Joe Clayton: congas
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- Paul Hubinon: trumpet
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- George Bonhanon: trombone
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- Ernie Watts: sax
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- William Green: sax
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- James Getzoff: violin
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- Jack Shulman: violin
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- Instrumentation:
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- Arranged by Gene Page
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- Produced by Marvin Gaye
Beauford Delaney (1901-1979) “Portraitist of the Famous”
“Perhaps I should say, flatly, what I believe–that he is a great painter, among the very greatest; but I do know that great art can only be created out of love, and that no greater lover has ever held a brush.”James Baldwin (1924-1987), writer, friend of artist Beauford Delaney
Abdul-Jalil al-Hakim, c.1971oil on canvas
Luminaries Josephine Baker, Bob Blackburn, Ed Clark, Bob Thompson, Marian Anderson (whose portrait he painted), Jacob Lawrence, Ella Fitzgerald (whose portrait he painted), Zora Neale Hurston, Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, Edward Steichen, Dorothy Norman, Anaïs Nin, art studio owner Charles Alston, Jackson Pollock, Vassili Pikoula, Henri Chahine (whose portrait he painted), Charlie Parker (whose portrait and music he painted.), James Jones, Jean Genet, Lawrence Calcagno, Cab Calloway, Elaine DeKooning, Palmer C. Hayden (whose portrait he painted), art dealer Darthea Speyer (whose portrait he painted) who had exhibitions of Delaney’s art at Paris’ Galerie Lambert in 1964. Others include artists Charles Boggs, Al Hirschfeld, John Franklin Koenig, Harold Cousins, Herbert Gentry (whose portrait he painted), Ed Clark, and Ellis Wilson, authors James Jones and Henry Miller (who was also a water colorist), Writers Richard Wright, Surrealist poet Stanislas Rodanski, Chester Himes, Ralph Ellison, William Gardner Smith, Richard Gibson, Lorraine Hansberry, Ted Joans, art historian Richard A. Long, and his friend Lynn Stone.
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